<p>If you have the time to complain, you have time to volunteer (sometimes). You’ll be the one writing the press releases and getting info for the website/school signs etc. Which is great! But don’t think someone else is volunteering to do that work.</p>
<p>ahsmuoh–I don’t know that our kids have ever had classmates come watch them play their sport, even when their teams were ranked very high in state-#1 for some of those years. D has had teammate come watch her when she played in the state tournaments, but not random classmates. Heck, I don’t think her best friends have ever come watch her now that I think of it. Not a big deal.</p>
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<p>Glorification of school athletics over academics dates back to well before WWII. That’s why you can still buy collectible old football posters from the early 20th and even 19th centuries: [Vintage</a> Football - Vintage Game Posters](<a href=“http://historicfootballposters.com/]Vintage”>http://historicfootballposters.com/) I doubt you can find any posters proclaiming the upcoming big Debate competitions from that era or any other. </p>
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<p>In our area such competitions are open. I know because I have attended.</p>
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<p>What you clearly said was that athletes deserve their acclaim because athletics is not like other competitions. The athletes put it all out there and risk publicly failing. I get that. But as I said, risking public failure in pressure-packed situations applies equally to other, more academic, forms of competition. So you are going to have to think of a different reason why athletes are Special and more deserving of the glory.</p>
<p>It’s an old, old story. Recall that the reason we have “Ivies” is because the institutions wanted to save themselves from an overemphasis on football. </p>
<p>And, FWIW, I am aware of at least one instance in recent years where a kid made it to the National Spelling Bee and the local cable company/ESPN provided free access to the kid’s school for the day so that classmates could watch it live.</p>
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<p>I know some “tennis parents.” They say that it is often just the moms of the two players who are there sitting on the bleachers…and maybe just the mom of the player playing at home. Nonetheless, I know from good publicity (that I’m sure was from parent publicists) how they did at district, who advanced to regionals, and how they did at regionals.</p>
<p>Just think of how many activities go on in the average large public HS…it is very hard to keep up with it all, and “outsiders” really don’t often know what is a big deal and not a big deal in a particular activity.</p>
<p>Years ago, a student at the HS was very highly ranked in the world for his individual (non-school) sport. As much as some parents promote their kids way too much, I so wished for this particular student’s parents to make the school aware of his achievements (but they never did.)</p>
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I find that hard to believe. Really hard to believe. </p>
<p>Look, it’s your kid’s high school, not mine, so I’m not going to play the “I know your life better than you do” game.</p>
<p>But let me throw this out there: most varsity basketball players have been playing for a decade. (I was four years old when my father put a Nerf ball into my hands and taught me how to shoot.) Freshman, JV, and varsity all do try-outs and happily cut many promising players. Does your speech team hold try-outs in which a solid number of people will only make a back-up team, or will be cut entirely? Does it cut participants who have been doing the event for five or ten years?</p>
<p>Athletes usually practise for 2-3 hours per day, six days a week, when they don’t have games. Elite basketball players also play AAU, attend summer camps, keep up their skills over the summer, weight train, and shoot at home. Is your speech team doing the equivalent? Are all the speech teams in the state doing that? </p>
<p>Nothing against your speech team, but I think you are underestimating what goes into making a state-level basketball team.</p>
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<p>I also think the students are very willing to support their classmates if important competitions are brought to their attention.</p>
<p>I agree ariesathena with your comparison between the years and hours of prep of basketball vs speech team. Unfortunately, I can say that my kids (in swimming) practice more hours (9 times a week) than the football team that gets all the glory - I am not saying they don’t work hard or the speech team doesn’t work hard - but the reality is - spectator sports will always get more hype! Personally I love watching football and basketball.</p>
<p>I never saw an academic/athletic recognition disparity per se. Most sports receive similar recognition to academic competitions. A few sports receive the bulk of the attention.</p>
<p>Casual fans have voted with their feet, and the top men’s team sports (football, basketball, in some places ice hockey or baseball) are apparently more entertaining to casual viewers. I think the difference in recognition is appropriate in that context.</p>
<p>Whether public high schools should be so deeply involved in spectator sports is a different question. I have mixed feelings about that one.
Absolutely. Recognition from total strangers doesn’t seem that important to me, and that’s the only big difference.</p>
<p>ariesathena–the short answer is yes, the top speech teams in the state are working that hard, go to camps over the summer, spend hours and hours and hours practicing their delivery, memorizing their speech(es). Not all basketball players play as much as you suggest either–trust me, I’ve coached BB for almost 30 years…</p>
<p>I’m not going to argue which is more important. I happen to cast my vote for the speech/debate. But where would I go for an outing? The school basket ball game wins hands down every time. I’ve yet to go to a speech/debate thinggy. And my son’s best friend was a national champion . Was a definite factor in getting him into Harvard. But I go to lousy basket ball games for the social interaction and the fun, not even state championship level, no where close.</p>
<p>SteveMA: the “top” speech teams in the state - but do most? All? How does that compare to varsity basketball?</p>
<p>It’s been my experience that the vast majority of athletes put in much more work (and, in many sports, start from a much younger age to even make a spot on the team) than do their counterparts in other clubs and activities. While a few speech/debate/mock trial/math team/etc. groups are outstanding, the majority aren’t serious - which makes for pretty easy competition along the way.</p>
<p>Have you coached high school varsity basketball for almost thirty years?</p>
<p>Our D’s school doesn’t have sports. They can join the teams of the nearest comprehensive HS or MS, but the focus is on academics, such as speech and we DID win last year. Any high-level academic achievement is celebrated, and I like it that way. </p>
<p>Some schools/cities/states are very sports-centric-we have a whole thread here on people who own second homes just to watch college football, for heaven’s sake! I’ll never understand it. </p>
<p>But I agree with the others who suggest working out your own strategy and volunteering to publicize the academics. I joined the PTO board this year sole to help it generate more donations and participation. It worked.</p>
<p>ariesathena–I’ve mostly coached varsity ball but I’ve coached at the younger levels too. Again, not all kids put in the time and effort you are suggesting in any sport, even basketball. The top teams are at the top because more of their kids do put in that effort, but get past the top 6 or so players on just about any team and no, they are not working like you think they do. Look at the teams that never win a game or seldom win, they aren’t playing AAU or spending all summer working out…</p>
<p>The same goes for every sport…the better players do as you say, the average or not so good players don’t. Same can be said for any activity, band, choir, speech, even academics in school…</p>
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I agree, but at least at my high school, almost every varsity athlete was there six days a week, and most schools were similar. Most varsity athletes (outside of track, which doesn’t really require a lot of technique) had been playing since elementary school or middle school. My understanding is that most varsity athletics within Massachusetts are similar.</p>
<p>What I’m really getting at is that if you’re a sports town, your student-athletes are all working six days a week; many will keep up their sports in the summer; and many train off-season. Many, but not all, of their competitors are similar. Non-athletic competitions, however, infrequently have that level of commitment, so it’s not like all three hundred high schools in the state have speech teams that have people who do speech camp over the summer. </p>
<p>In math terms, I’m postulating that there are two bell curves, with the one for varsity athletes being to the “more time and effort” side of the one for non-athletic competitions.</p>
<p>(Hey, I did science team and mock trial on a high level. I understand what it takes, but I also know that most high schools don’t have teams, and most high school teams don’t work that hard in the events. You really only get strong competition from a handful of schools, which is hardly the case in something like basketball.)</p>
<p>To me, this story told me everything I needed to know about the priorities at my son’s HS:</p>
<p>DS and several others in his large HS were named NM Semifinalists. They had a short private ceremony to recognize them in the library before school, with only parents invited to attend. A few days later, they were having a school-wide assembly and the principal had them come up to be recognized. As he finished the recognition and they were leaving the stage, the principal said, “And, now, what we’re all REALLY here for…”. He then announced that the cheerleading sqad had won a state competition.</p>
<p>I thought we were talking speech teams–no, the math team probably doesn’t put in the hours the football team does, but the football team doesn’t put in the hours the marching band does either.</p>
<p>If it makes you feel any better think of it this way. For the kids on the basketball team this may be the biggest achievement of their life and they will return to the 25 year re-union and relive their “glory days” as Springsteen sings. For the speech team memebers it wil hopefully be the start of a very successful career in whatever their chosen profession turns out to be.</p>
<p>Yes and there are kids who play the piano and practice three hours a day and six hours a day on weekends and play at Carnegie Hall. This is not a contest of which kids try harder. If they excel at sports or music or debate or whatever, they are putting in lots of hours.</p>
<p>I agree that volunteering is an issue, but in my experience, most successful kids have parents who are regular volunteers not only for their sport or activity, but for the school in general.</p>
<p>What struck a chord with me in the OP is that team sports do get a lot of accolades that the academic kids, the music kids, the swimmers, etc. do not get. Pep rallies, award ceremonies, etc. It is just a fact of life in our school as well.</p>
<p>At our school, we have had several teams go to states and the same issues - pep rallies, bus trips, lots of missed classes, etc. The swim team goes quietly off to states, wins championships, sets records and barely a mention in the school announcements. One of the music kids get national honors, just an announcement. Same with the debate team.</p>
<p>All of these kids spent countless hours practicing. Many of their parents spent countless hours volunteering.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, this is just a mirror of society. You don’t see the Nobel Laureates and Pulitzer prize winners getting honored on a prime time special. The Super Bowl gets countless days and weeks of coverage and speculation. </p>
<p>Parents can and absolutely should work with their schools to help publicize the achievements of their children. Parents are also the key to making sure that the kids are proud of their achievements - no matter the size of the crowd that is a witness.</p>